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Download failed Destination directory for file streaming does not exist

When updating a component (or the core) in wordpress, you may get the error message “Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable”. This directory is either wp-content/ or a custom path defined in wp-config.php.

To fix this issue, you can remove any define() calls specifying “WP_TEMP_DIR” as key, and enter the following instead:

define('WP_TEMP_DIR', ABSPATH . 'wp-content/');

Also, make sure that there are correct permissions to this folder. In a UNIX environment, this means “755″. In a Windows environment, this means that the IIS Website App Pool Identity should have Modify permissions.

If you have problems detecting which Identity the App Pool is using, you can try adding permissions to the objects “SERVICE ACCOUNT” and “IIS_IUSRS”.

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I am Zubi, a web analyst by profession and IT Entrepreneur. I live every moment at the fullest. I love open source projects and mobile development, and I am especially interested in Startup talks, Tech news and Trending projects.

I tried adding this and still got the same error. I recently migrated to a new server (and supposedly better level of server) on the same host. It has to be something where the user defined in wp-config.php is somehow not recognized as having permission or something simple. Only it’s too late for me to think simply… I quit for now.

If anyone has come across this when migrating to from 3.5 to 4 (dv) on MT, holler.